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I grew up in the Bay Area (and went to SJSU like Amy did) and one thing I really like about Amy Tan’s writing is here ability to evoke the sights, sounds and smells of the locales she describes. I can viscerally experience the settings as if I were there, and the characters are like so many people I grew up around it is as if I know them as she writes about them.
Thanks for posting this! I’d heard a lot of positive and negative things about this book, but had never really understood its significance before. This was a really concise look that covered all the bases. God bless you!
We actually had a book signing with Amy Tan as the guest of our county recently. It was put off for a couple years due to the shut down, but after the long wait it was well worth seeing her in person 😊
Not Chinese, and totally Christian Catholic, but this movie...I can't explain it. I like how it shows SF in the 80's or early 90's how the city was and how people dressed, I also loved how early 1900's China was depicted with that culture, the homes, the clothes, the sets with beautiful architecture and plants (even if it was a rougher time for the women characters).
My opinion: the book most definitely puts Chinese culture in a harsher and darker tone, but does it’s best to show that the characters are people, and doesn’t sugarcoat Chinese culture into a more plain and much more “Americanized” point of view. It still does in a sense, as Amy Tan is also American, but it still holds pretty true to how it would be realistically.
I had never heard of this book until your video convinced me to read it, it was beautiful and poetic and I couldn't stop crying. thank you so much for the suggestion
How about a summary of The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy? The novel basically paved way for the modern concept of superheroes with secret identities.
This was such a wonderful summary of this book. I should read this again, it's been many years... As an Asian American immigrant, i wonder how I'll see it now.
One of the things I seem to remember about the movie was that its depiction of Asian men was straight out of old Hollywood racist tropes. The Asian men in the film were either abusive, philandering jerks, or emasculated and effeminate. The daughters in the film always seemed to find happiness with Caucasian mates.
Look at it this way ... feminism is far more fleshed out in Western society, so by a simple law of averages, the more immersed in traditionalist society a self-respecting Asian woman is, the more alluring Western men will seem
I would like to point out the story is good but the writing is great. Just on a craftsman's point of view. The structure, pacing and her use of symbolism was just so spot on. I am as far from the supposed target demographic as one might presume such an audience to be but I still rank this as one of my favorite first time reads. Go read it.
I don´t have time for new books RN, I am already swamped trying to read all three of the awesome MXTX danmei series as they are officially published in English! XD
This makes me want to see you do a video on Farewell to Manzanar, because though that's about Japanese families in America being put in camps, it's another story about how hard it was being Asian during WW2 and the stigmas that followed the main narrator.
This was an AMAZING movie. I admit I've not read the book and I should. However, I watched the movie with my mother and it was beautifully done. I can only imagine that the book is 10x better.
I'm sad that there were so few all-asian casted movies in Hollywood, but may I recommend the dumb fun of Big Trouble in Little China? John Carpenter was clearly calling the industry out on this in 1986.
Sounds like an interesting read. Something I can recommend is the Belgariad saga (and the sequel the Maloreon saga) by David Eddings and his wife. Basically take some stereotypical characters and fantasy countries and still make an interesting and intriguing story out of it. And some of the banter between the characters is legendary.
I vaguely remember seeing the movie the book was based off of sometime when I was in my first year of (community) college. Saw it with my parents. Don't remember if it was for something class-related or just something I ended up watching with my parents. It was a pretty decent film from what I remember, even if a lot of the details are lost to me.
watched the movie in high school. had a big crush on a young ming na wen. :D and then our teacher assigned us Amy Tan's The Kitchen God's Wife. Also a great book.
I had never heard of this book before unfortunately but I am glad that I now do and look forward to checking out both this book and its movie adaptation
Happy Asian American/Pacific Islander Heritage month everyone. For those wishing for other great Asian writers I also recommend Gene Leun Yang, personal favorite comic author who wrote for Superman and Avatar, As well as original stories about everything from basketball to historical fiction
I read this in high school, but I need to reread it (it's been fifteen years!). Even though I'm Italian-American - my dad's dad was an immigrant - I remember connecting with it and feeling like I understood my dad and grandpa better. Also, I have learned how to play mah jong since reading it and I want to see if that changes how I interpret the stories.
I am starting to read the book, but I enjoyed the movie which showed an Immigrant mother and American daughter relationship between the mother and daughter with them building a relationship with each other in the story.
Movies frequently have complicated relationships with their books. I think you can praise something, but still find faults, while also looking at the broader context. Doubly so for WHEN both versions were written and released. An that's not even getting into the differences between first generation and 2nd generation immigrants with how they see and interact with their culture of origin.
Wow, we literally JUST read this book two months ago in my English class! It was quite an interesting read for me as well, considering I'm... also a Chinese-Californian, but I suppose there are some experiences that can even transcend time. There were quite a few places in that book where I thought they may as well have been describing me or some of my friends. It was obviously not a _carbon-copy_ thing, but it was close enough...
Good vid sorry I didn’t see the skyrim birthday stream I tried to do a ancient gods part 2 but obs key bindings got mixed up. But happy late late late late birthday.
never heard of it, time to learn! 8 focal characters in 16 INTER-WEAVING STORIES?! welp my head is about to start spinning out of control over 'wtf is going on?!'
I get this book has had an impact on the Asian American narrative but honestly it’s written with a white savior perspective which is problematic but I appreciate your coverage of this book
@@Silent_Speaker The only way books about the Chinese experience get any attention in the West is if it’s written as a polemic about “China bad, except the main characters in this book”. One critic has described this as a Schadenfreude phenomenon. Even today, the main reason major news papers hire Chinese-American journalists is to produce stories that confirm the American cultural superiority standard narrative.
@@Silent_SpeakerThis novel was one of the only books by an Asian American authors that was popularized...and its not hard to guess why. It appeals to western non-Asian readers by presenting Asian peoples/culture in a palatable way, essentially just walking Hollywood tropes of that era. The story also doesn't 'rock the boat' like other novels such as No No Boy so that why its school literature today. In reality this book is really outdated with a lot of yellow peril stereotypes that will not bode well for the average Asian American in todays political climate.
I've read this book twice, once in high school and once after college. And both times I severely disliked it. I'm aware of its cultural importance and resonance with many Asian Americans, but have consistently failed to empathize with the stories. (The one exception is in the Chess Chapter where the daughter yells at her mother for taking credit for her achievement. That shout is the way I feel about the book as a whole.) I found every character thoroughly unlikeable and their continual friction was frustrating and tiresome. (I'm thinking especially of the married couple's attempt to divide their expenses evenly which fails because they attempt to apply quantitative reasoning to a qualitative process.) Has anyone else felt this way and have they found a way to connect with this significant work of recent American Fiction?
That immediately prompted the memory of Folding Idea's "A Lukewarm Defense of 50 SoG" video and the reading aloud of the line "my face must be the colour of the Communist Manifesto". . Imagine if E.C. read FSoG. : s ...do we hate E.C. enough to force that on them? Has Covid lockdown / social distancing driven us that far into cruelty and madness?? You tell me!
I also remember being really put off by the pov of the mom regarding her timid shy daughter as a failure who had no fire in her spirit because her mother (the mother thinks) had been so worn down that by the time of her daughter's birth she'd had no fire to give her. . Talk about self-centered and egotistical, and way to judge a person a failure because they don't have the personality you favour. And of course, even back when I read this (in high school) I had some inkling of understanding that adult children being so deeply insecure usually came from being raised by neglectful or abusive parents they could never please. So yeah, mom, the fault was yours, but because of your criticism and lack of appreciation; not because you failed to magically pass on fire into your daughter's soul. . Relatability aside (and their different race and race-related struggles didn't stop me from identifying -- or not -- with other aspects of their personhood and life), none of the characters were very likable or memorable to me. . I tried reading other stuff by her and authors recpmmended for similarity of prose or content, but the style just didn't appeal to me then and probably still won't now. . A work can be important without being personally likable to any given individual, of course. It certainly didn't *hurt* me to read the book Joy Luck Club. But it sure didn't go on my re-read list.
@@iprobablyforgotsomething The book accurately reflects the reality, only those who has East Asian mothers understand the book. It's like me not being able to relate or understand any Shakespeare's work.
@@User-vz4xm Shakespeare's plays are a work of fiction and so is JLC according to Amy Tan but a lot of people take this book as a memoir of sorts and its just real bad with some of its outdated yellow peril undertones. It's definitely heavily, heavily dramatized to cater to a non-Asian western reader base and I too made the mistake of thinking this book was a reflection of Asian-American lifestyle when I was reading this book.
Interested in a free meal all while supporting our show? Then why not try Hello Fresh? You can use code EXTRACREDITS16 for up to 16 FREE MEALS + 3 Surprise Gifts across 6 HelloFresh boxes plus free shipping! Just use the link to quiet your stomach and get started. --> bit.ly/3qksy9M
All quiet on the western front plz
Thank you for reading my comment.
As a Chinese Canadian, I'm thankful for you guys bringing attention to this book and encouraging an open discussion!
Thank YOU for being here!
Since you are a Chinese Canadian, what did you think of Turning Red?
I still can't restrain my tears watching the end of the movie. The twin sisters' words 妹妹 mei-mei, little sister, chokes me up just writing this.
I'm reading this book in English class rn. What a coincidence :)
We have PERFECT timing.... sometimes.
I grew up in the Bay Area (and went to SJSU like Amy did) and one thing I really like about Amy Tan’s writing is here ability to evoke the sights, sounds and smells of the locales she describes. I can viscerally experience the settings as if I were there, and the characters are like so many people I grew up around it is as if I know them as she writes about them.
Thanks for posting this! I’d heard a lot of positive and negative things about this book, but had never really understood its significance before. This was a really concise look that covered all the bases. God bless you!
Thank you for hanging out and watching!
We actually had a book signing with Amy Tan as the guest of our county recently. It was put off for a couple years due to the shut down, but after the long wait it was well worth seeing her in person 😊
Lucky 😮
Not Chinese, and totally Christian Catholic, but this movie...I can't explain it. I like how it shows SF in the 80's or early 90's how the city was and how people dressed, I also loved how early 1900's China was depicted with that culture, the homes, the clothes, the sets with beautiful architecture and plants (even if it was a rougher time for the women characters).
My opinion: the book most definitely puts Chinese culture in a harsher and darker tone, but does it’s best to show that the characters are people, and doesn’t sugarcoat Chinese culture into a more plain and much more “Americanized” point of view. It still does in a sense, as Amy Tan is also American, but it still holds pretty true to how it would be realistically.
I had never heard of this book until your video convinced me to read it, it was beautiful and poetic and I couldn't stop crying. thank you so much for the suggestion
I remember reading excerpts of this in elementary school and once I read the title, the parts I know came flooding back in full. 😳
I love this book... Was hoping someone could do a summary... This is perfect thank you.
You're very welcome!
How about a summary of The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy? The novel basically paved way for the modern concept of superheroes with secret identities.
This was such a wonderful summary of this book. I should read this again, it's been many years... As an Asian American immigrant, i wonder how I'll see it now.
One of the things I seem to remember about the movie was that its depiction of Asian men was straight out of old Hollywood racist tropes. The Asian men in the film were either abusive, philandering jerks, or emasculated and effeminate. The daughters in the film always seemed to find happiness with Caucasian mates.
Look at it this way ... feminism is far more fleshed out in Western society, so by a simple law of averages, the more immersed in traditionalist society a self-respecting Asian woman is, the more alluring Western men will seem
Well it makes perfect sense since Amy Tan hated all the prominent Asian men in her life growing up in Oakland California
Only Waverly (in a way). Rose and Lena tried to leave their husbands.
I loved this book, I had read it in 10th grade as a reading assignment. It was so lovely.
I would like to point out the story is good but the writing is great. Just on a craftsman's point of view. The structure, pacing and her use of symbolism was just so spot on. I am as far from the supposed target demographic as one might presume such an audience to be but I still rank this as one of my favorite first time reads. Go read it.
The timing for this video is honestly amazing since i'm reading this book for school right now
It's been decades since I read this - and now I want to revisit it. Great book!
I don´t have time for new books RN, I am already swamped trying to read all three of the awesome MXTX danmei series as they are officially published in English! XD
This makes me want to see you do a video on Farewell to Manzanar, because though that's about Japanese families in America being put in camps, it's another story about how hard it was being Asian during WW2 and the stigmas that followed the main narrator.
This was an AMAZING movie. I admit I've not read the book and I should. However, I watched the movie with my mother and it was beautifully done. I can only imagine that the book is 10x better.
I'm sad that there were so few all-asian casted movies in Hollywood, but may I recommend the dumb fun of Big Trouble in Little China? John Carpenter was clearly calling the industry out on this in 1986.
Sounds like an interesting read.
Something I can recommend is the Belgariad saga (and the sequel the Maloreon saga) by David Eddings and his wife. Basically take some stereotypical characters and fantasy countries and still make an interesting and intriguing story out of it. And some of the banter between the characters is legendary.
We're ALWAYS up for legendary banter!
@@extrahistory Have you read it? It's a really good exercise in what you can do with standard tropes.
Love watching your videos , sometimes i get to listen about books i have never heard of❤
I vaguely remember seeing the movie the book was based off of sometime when I was in my first year of (community) college. Saw it with my parents. Don't remember if it was for something class-related or just something I ended up watching with my parents. It was a pretty decent film from what I remember, even if a lot of the details are lost to me.
I actually saw the movie first when I was in high school and read the book years later. One of my favorite books and the movie is a great adaptation.
I happen to have the exact same reaction as Zoe when reading a good book. I don't even look up, I just go "BOOK", and keep reading.
I am heavily reminded of the recent Pixar movie “Turning Red”.
OMG we LOVE that movie so much!!!
Pixar, don't give the mouse credit for their acquisition-studios' work.
@@ChristianCTaken Thank you. I made the correction. To be fair I saw it on Disney Plus. Sorry for the mistake.
You need to do one of these on a book called an absolutely remarkable thing by Hank Green. It's an amazing book
watched the movie in high school. had a big crush on a young ming na wen. :D
and then our teacher assigned us Amy Tan's The Kitchen God's Wife. Also a great book.
I had never heard of this book before unfortunately but I am glad that I now do and look forward to checking out both this book and its movie adaptation
Legit one of the best books ever.
Happy Asian American/Pacific Islander Heritage month everyone. For those wishing for other great Asian writers I also recommend Gene Leun Yang, personal favorite comic author who wrote for Superman and Avatar, As well as original stories about everything from basketball to historical fiction
His run on Batman/Superman was a highlight for me, especially since he took over the series from a high-concept writer who frankly wasn’t very good
In a comic class I had to read one of his works and it was good! Definitely a fun elective, and had read intelligent discussions in that class
coming in clutch for my english final essay
I read this book a month or so ago for english. It was a good book and i liked analyzing it.
I read this in high school, but I need to reread it (it's been fifteen years!). Even though I'm Italian-American - my dad's dad was an immigrant - I remember connecting with it and feeling like I understood my dad and grandpa better. Also, I have learned how to play mah jong since reading it and I want to see if that changes how I interpret the stories.
I am starting to read the book, but I enjoyed the movie which showed an Immigrant mother and American daughter relationship between the mother and daughter with them building a relationship with each other in the story.
Oh my god I’d read this book in high school and totally forgot about it this video unlocked a deep memory
AYYYY MAJONG IS FEATURED LETS GO
Movies frequently have complicated relationships with their books. I think you can praise something, but still find faults, while also looking at the broader context. Doubly so for WHEN both versions were written and released. An that's not even getting into the differences between first generation and 2nd generation immigrants with how they see and interact with their culture of origin.
Thank you for the video.
You're welcome!
I've seen the movie of this but not read the book so this is nice to see.
I am literally learning about this book in English right now
I remember reading one of the stories of this book when I was in school.
Wow, we literally JUST read this book two months ago in my English class! It was quite an interesting read for me as well, considering I'm... also a Chinese-Californian, but I suppose there are some experiences that can even transcend time. There were quite a few places in that book where I thought they may as well have been describing me or some of my friends. It was obviously not a _carbon-copy_ thing, but it was close enough...
MY IGCSE END EXAM ON THIS IS IN 3 DAYS - THIS IS MY REVISION NOW
Good vid sorry I didn’t see the skyrim birthday stream I tried to do a ancient gods part 2 but obs key bindings got mixed up. But happy late late late late birthday.
I liked this book when I read it back in high school for a class
never heard of it, time to learn! 8 focal characters in 16 INTER-WEAVING STORIES?! welp my head is about to start spinning out of control over 'wtf is going on?!'
You guys should do "A Song Of Ice And Fire" that would be really cool
Make a video of South Africa please 🙏🙏🥺
I dug out my late mother's copy while playing this video.
Can you make a video of the history of hypnosis please.
Is the story more enjoyable if you're familiar with mahjong? Should you play a few games of mahjong first to learn the basics?
No, you do not have be familiar with mahjong. It is just a really enjoyable book!
You are lucky you run into this coffee shop... with an armored tank.
4:36 "L" missing!
This is quite an interesting book!
I started this book once, and don't even remember if I finished it.
Dont tell me this book wasn't required by your school to read 😂😂
It was not.
Cover "All quiet" pls
So You Haven't Read Harry Turtledove's Timeline 191 series or any of Harry Turtledove's works in the genre of alternate history.
Any chance you can do Starship Troopers?
I see mahjong, I come in
Glad to have you here!
Proper Mahjong is such a fun game, I wish it were more known in western countries, I’m left playing online
this was the book we read in class before we started *the forbidden name* book
What’s the forbidden name?
I can’t say, it’s forbidden.
POV: your here becasue you searched up "THe joy luck club chapter 1" and saw this video
Ayo 38 seconds hella on time
PANR has tuned in.
Thanks PANR!
@@extrahistory always here for ya big cat! Especially for literature.
I read some of this in 7th grade for an assignment
A note, at 4:37 the word "culture" is missing the L. at least I'm assuming that isn't an intentional distortion for effect.
Frankly, even hearing about these family dynamics secondhand exhausts and infuriates me. I really don't know how the east can do it.
Sounds like a fascinating read.
Huh. A "So You Haven't Read" that I actually haven't read. This is a surprise, but a welcome one
Fanastic book
The Movie is on Amazon Prime
Never got to read the book 💝 seen the movie .... Moved to tears , highly recommend
Next... So you haven't read Orlando. Virginia Wolf
I really liked her second novel. The Kitchen Gods Wife A great book even better than this one
Foundation when?
essay tmw and never payed attention pray for me😭
I’ve actually been reading this book lmao
Anyone thinking turning red could have drawn inspiration from one or two of these tales?
Why is your cat the size of you?
Loved this book along with the kitchen gods wife
Haven't read this one. But I did read Kitchen God's Wife and loved it.
I love how accurately representing a foreign culture gets you criticized as “distorting” it
Lmao and where are you getting the idea that it was "accurate"
@@yugonostalgia8961 lmao from actually living in a culture instead of an internet bubble like you
He follows the Agenda
@@georgeso4364 again, wtf are you talking about
cool
I get this book has had an impact on the Asian American narrative but honestly it’s written with a white savior perspective which is problematic but I appreciate your coverage of this book
We appreaciate your commentary and being here to watch it!
I thought it was written by an Asain American though.?
@@Silent_Speaker The only way books about the Chinese experience get any attention in the West is if it’s written as a polemic about “China bad, except the main characters in this book”. One critic has described this as a Schadenfreude phenomenon. Even today, the main reason major news papers hire Chinese-American journalists is to produce stories that confirm the American cultural superiority standard narrative.
@@johnyricco1220 What a weak argument.
@@Silent_SpeakerThis novel was one of the only books by an Asian American authors that was popularized...and its not hard to guess why. It appeals to western non-Asian readers by presenting Asian peoples/culture in a palatable way, essentially just walking Hollywood tropes of that era. The story also doesn't 'rock the boat' like other novels such as No No Boy so that why its school literature today. In reality this book is really outdated with a lot of yellow peril stereotypes that will not bode well for the average Asian American in todays political climate.
I actually have read the book. I'm a big fan
Obligatory mrenter joke
"You haven't read it?" I watched the movie....?
I've read this book twice, once in high school and once after college. And both times I severely disliked it. I'm aware of its cultural importance and resonance with many Asian Americans, but have consistently failed to empathize with the stories. (The one exception is in the Chess Chapter where the daughter yells at her mother for taking credit for her achievement. That shout is the way I feel about the book as a whole.) I found every character thoroughly unlikeable and their continual friction was frustrating and tiresome. (I'm thinking especially of the married couple's attempt to divide their expenses evenly which fails because they attempt to apply quantitative reasoning to a qualitative process.)
Has anyone else felt this way and have they found a way to connect with this significant work of recent American Fiction?
Yeah, I can tell why I would have never read this.
Why?
We're waiting...
I appreciate this series, but prefer when you focus on classics rather than making it about just any modern book.
That book is extremely racist which is littered with self-loathing tropes and misandry against male counterparts of the central female characters.
That pretty much sums up all her books. Same with Maxine Hong Kingston
The narrator’s Chinese / Cantonese pronunciation in this video is sloppy.
It sounds weird and unnatural.
Wow & first
H
Noice
imagine if extra history reads the communist manifisto next
What's wrong with that? Countless channels already did that and other problematic literature...
That immediately prompted the memory of Folding Idea's "A Lukewarm Defense of 50 SoG" video and the reading aloud of the line "my face must be the colour of the Communist Manifesto".
.
Imagine if E.C. read FSoG. : s ...do we hate E.C. enough to force that on them? Has Covid lockdown / social distancing driven us that far into cruelty and madness?? You tell me!
why? because I am a straight man mainly.
I've been forced to read Amy Tan and I hated every minute of it. They're objectively bad narratives.
They did some things very well but it's also a racist polemic so...
I also remember being really put off by the pov of the mom regarding her timid shy daughter as a failure who had no fire in her spirit because her mother (the mother thinks) had been so worn down that by the time of her daughter's birth she'd had no fire to give her.
.
Talk about self-centered and egotistical, and way to judge a person a failure because they don't have the personality you favour. And of course, even back when I read this (in high school) I had some inkling of understanding that adult children being so deeply insecure usually came from being raised by neglectful or abusive parents they could never please. So yeah, mom, the fault was yours, but because of your criticism and lack of appreciation; not because you failed to magically pass on fire into your daughter's soul.
.
Relatability aside (and their different race and race-related struggles didn't stop me from identifying -- or not -- with other aspects of their personhood and life), none of the characters were very likable or memorable to me.
.
I tried reading other stuff by her and authors recpmmended for similarity of prose or content, but the style just didn't appeal to me then and probably still won't now.
.
A work can be important without being personally likable to any given individual, of course. It certainly didn't *hurt* me to read the book Joy Luck Club. But it sure didn't go on my re-read list.
@@iprobablyforgotsomething The book accurately reflects the reality, only those who has East Asian mothers understand the book. It's like me not being able to relate or understand any Shakespeare's work.
@@User-vz4xm Shakespeare's plays are a work of fiction and so is JLC according to Amy Tan but a lot of people take this book as a memoir of sorts and its just real bad with some of its outdated yellow peril undertones. It's definitely heavily, heavily dramatized to cater to a non-Asian western reader base and I too made the mistake of thinking this book was a reflection of Asian-American lifestyle when I was reading this book.